Election Day begins with Harris-Trump tie in Dixville Notch that Biden swept in 2020. What it signals

In a gentle moment in an otherwise polarised election, a handful of voters and journalists became part of a decadeslong tradition in New Hampshire.

In a tradition dating to 1960s, New Hampshire’s Dixville Notch in the early hours of Tuesday became the first town to declare its result in the 2024 US presidential election. The town has a historical tradition of voting at midnight in the presidential election.

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Over the decades, Dixville Noth has often had more journalists than voters.

In the 2024 election, the town had six voters and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump tied with three votes each.

Among the town’s six voters, four were Democrats and two were undeclared.

In the Republican primaries earlier this year, the town had unanimously voted for Nikki Haley, who later dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.

In the 2020 election, the town’s five voters had unanimously voted for President Joe Biden. In 2016, of the seven voters, four voted for Hillary Clinton, two for Trump, and for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

What is Dixville Notch’s tradition?

By tradition, all eligible voters gather in Dixville Notch’s Balsams Hotel to cast their ballots at midnight as Election Day kicks in.

Soon after, ballots are counted and votes are announced. This time, the entire process was completed within 12 minutes, according to The New York Times.

The newspaper reported that the Dixville Notch, an unincorporated community, was made as a town for the sole purpose of turning the Balsams Hotel into a voting location.

While the move may have been intended as a public relations masterstroke as the then-owner Neil Tilotson was looking at free advertising, the town developed soon found itself a unique place in US electoral history. The town not just became the first to vote and declare its result but also became a reason to smile for many in times of polarising politics.

Over the years, journalists thronged to the hotel to be the first ones to file stories of votes cast and tallied in the country.

Even though the result is politically meaningless, Les Otten, one of the town’s voters and the lead developer for the Balsams, told CNN that Dixville Notch teaches “a civics lesson for the country”.

“If we can help people get out and understand that voting is an important part of their right as an American citizen, that’s perhaps the key to what we’re doing,” said Otten.

Separately, Otten told CNN, “In our backyard, the system is going to work the way it was designed. Six people will vote. Their votes will be counted. And once it’s done, it’s done."

However, even amid the gentle mood, the polarised politics was not far. Otten said that he is a Republican but is voting for Harris because of Trump.

“Nowhere in the Pledge of Allegiance does it say anything about pledging your allegiance to a person and I think at the end of the day, Trump has made it clear that you need to pledge allegiance to him, and he alone can fix this, and that is as anti-democratic as I can understand.”